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Exploring the impacts of climate change

By Eric Larsen

Posted:
12/29/2013 01:00:00 AM MST

I am a polar explorer. It's not a job you'll find listed on Monster or any other help wanted ad, but it's a good conversation starter so I keep it on my business card. Interest in this unique profession can wane quickly however, with details of my job description: minus-50 degree temperatures, no showers for nearly two months, hungry polar bears, thin ice, and of course, frozen everything.

I'm not sure exactly how I learned the tenacity required for these world record expeditions, but somewhere along the way I was imbued with an abundance of optimism, which has allowed me to believe that seemingly impossible challenges are surmountable. "Begin with one step," is a mantra I constantly repeat to myself. Still, it is not all pain and suffering. I find beauty and solace in these remote landscapes. They are unique and pristine places that few people, if any, have ever seen.

Having completed more polar expeditions than any American in history, I have a keen sense of climate change and its effects on these areas. Last year, while attempting to bicycle to the South Pole, temperatures were so warm that I pedaled for part of one day wearing only a T-shirt. The signs are clear: warmer weather, unusual weather patterns, shifting seasons, and in the Arctic, a drastically changing ice cap.

In fact, the Arctic is melting at an alarming rate -- about twice as fast as the rest of the globe. The past six years have shown the six smallest sea ice extents since 1979. Last year, sea ice extent and volume plunged to a record low. There is absolutely no doubt that the North Pole is in the crosshairs of climate change and is paying the price for the world's addiction to fossil fuels. It's become the bellwether for the biggest challenge of our time.

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Three years ago, in an effort to raise awareness of climate change, I set a record for summiting Everest and reaching the North and South Poles in twelve consecutive months. These places are some of the last great frozen wildernesses left on the planet -- and they are the prime targets of climate change. In the last year, I've come to realize that because many of the places I want to visit are on the climate change hit list, the traditional role of being an explorer has changed from being the first to explore some of these places to being the last human that will experience them.

This March, I'll attempt to break the unsupported speed (48 days) record from northern Ellesmere Island to the Geographic North Pole. While there have been over 1500 summits of Mt. Everest in the past three years, there have been no successful land-to-North Pole expeditions in that same time span. It's easily one of the most difficult expeditions on earth.

But the real story and motivator for me is that this expedition could realistically be the last full expedition to the North Pole. With the recent IPCC report release, it's clear that climate change is real, and human-caused. The North Pole as we know it is on borrowed time and I could very well be the last person able to access it on foot and in this style.

There is no question that we are losing the most iconic frozen place on our planet to climate change, a place that is integral to regulating a healthy world climate. For me -- and my career -- this is a tragic situation. For my young son, I wonder about the future of his world without ice.

For the global community, it's catastrophic.

As former NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco stated, "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic." The arctic region plays a major role in regulating Earth's systems, such as climate and oceans, and it's becoming increasingly clear to scientists that climate change in the Arctic will have massive effects on the entire planet.

Furthermore, researchers from Cambridge and Erasmus said that as the sea ice melts at an unprecedented rate, the thawing permafrost releases large stores of methane. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, and increased concentrations of methane in the atmosphere will accelerate global warming -- continuing the destructive cycle.

Yes, the million year-old polar ice is melting. But instead of mourning it's loss, let's do something about it. I'm working with Protect Our Winters to unite the winter sports community to take meaningful action against climate change. The most impactful thing we can do right now is to support President Obama's climate action plan, specifically the enforcement of the Clean Air Act, to reduce CO2 from coal fired power plants which are the source of 40 percent of the world's carbon emissions.

If we can accomplish this, we'll have taken a huge step forward in fighting climate change and protecting the places we love and need.

In the past, explorers have famously quipped, "because it is there." Today, I am forced to say, "because it might not be there in the future." I am an explorer because I want to be the first. I don't want to be known for being the last.

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